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This is part five of an ongoing project by the DW-WP interns Hilary Allison and JP Kim. This summer, we’re pulling out all the “social media” stops to get our work seen and our names out. It’s an experiment, and we’re documenting every step… so YOU can learn from our successes and failures. Read Week 1 here.

Hey, it’s Hilary writing in plain text again this week. JP in italics. Did you notice our absence last week? We were busy learning FUN life lessons about juggling commitments… and ran into the downside of collaboration. Two humans can accomplish more than one human. But humans are fallible. We’re both human, and here—for your entertainment and education—we lay last week’s problems bare. In retrospect, it was quite the sitcom… or perhaps a classroom coloring page, captioned: “Hil and JP talk it out when they are upset.”

Life Offline

Here’s what happened with Hilary…

SATURDAY, 6/4: Hm, JP isn’t picking up his phone. We were supposed to meet on Skype. Ah well, probably at his job… getting doors slammed in his face. We can talk tomorrow.

SUNDAY, 6/5: JP, pick up your damn phone. At least acknowledge my email. C’mon, I wrote you a very kind prod, didn’t I, with photos of tarsiers and a Shatterstar cover for comic relief? … Alright. And now I’ve written my share of blog content. John Paul! … You’re NEVER this out of touch when we have a deadline. Something unusual must have occurred. Did your great-grandmother die? Did YOU die? You were spinning your friend’s car in an empty parking lot, weren’t you, and this time you lost control and smashed your skull against the dashboard!

MONDAY, 6/6: JESSICA! MATT! JP IS IN TROUBLE! I CAN’T REACH HIM! (J&M: *lift their feeble heads to reveal faces green with the flu*) Oh dear. Feel better. Uh, JP is missing. (Jessica: Uh-oh.) I am fretting. (Jessica: Don’t fret too much.) What do I do with today’s post? Should I pretend to be him?! Or write that he’s AWOL?! (Jessica: Maybe. Could be funny. Talk later.)

(the Real JP: Two-cents is the phrase I use for any info/advice I give, it is not an indicator of length.)

TUESDAY, 6/8: I am feeling very ditched. Please write more than two cents. I’m busy too, you know. (JP: I will, should be done for tomorrow.)

WEDNESDAY, 6/9: Hey! (JP: Hey, not feeling too good, can I call you back?) No! Where are the goods? (JP: Coming.) I am angry! (JP: I know, sorry.) Why am I doing more work than you? (JP: You don’t have to be.) What? But this is what we set out to do!

THURSDAY, 6/10: (JP: Ok, so I added my bit. I think the reason you end up with doing the “tasting and testing” is that I’m focusing on content, development of persona and integration of real world marketing at the moment. I’ve got my vehicles of output up and running (have had them for awhile) so I’m not actively searching for and researching new website-things…stuff… If you have too much “tasting and testing” just e-mail me some stuff to look at and I’ll gladly do so. We’re just focusing on two different things at the moment and the past two weeks haven’t been good to me, but its ok, it won’t be like that in the future. Talk to you this saturday.)

FRIDAY, 6/11: Okay thanks, JP. And by all means, I think our readers would LOVE to hear about those aspects that you ARE focused on. Just so long as we’re both generating content. I believe we set a precedent of content quality—and quantity—in the first two weeks. Now the responsibility of living up to that precedent should be shared equally.

…and here’s what happened with JP.

Ok, so really quick:

What happened.

Shit goes down at my grandma’s nursing home, I have to watch my 3 younger siblings after work and run my parent’s errands while they deal with said shit.

I lose a many days and much energy dealing with these things.

End of the week rolls around, I have barely any work done, am too stressed to competently complete anything and am about to kill myself. Friend comes over and is like “hey, maybe you should try getting out of the house, we can go up to my house/cabin thing in the Poconos and have a camp out, nature will totally help you relax and do work, there isn’t internet but we’ll be back before Monday so you can do work there and upload it Sunday night”

I’m saying “yes”

So on the way up, my cell phone dies, and I’m just like “whatever, I’ll charge it when we get to the house/cabin thing.” We get to the house/cabin thing and I go to get my charger and lo and behold, charger is not there, I forgot it at home. Subsequent reaction to situation is “F-WORD, CAN’T GET IN TOUCH WITH ANYBODY!”

“But Wait!” friend says, I have MY cell phone.

“YES!” I say, “But, NO! Because I have all the numbers I need to call on MY phone which is DEAD!”

I got a little bit of work done. Then it rained and we got delayed and I finally made it back early Monday, feeling like crap.

Stayed in bed for a few days and then finished my work. That’s life I suppose. Pardon my whininess or whatever other judgments and assumptions you have made about me by the end of this bit.

Love, JP

xoxo

…to be continued soon in “Social Media For Young Cartoonists: Weeks 5-6: Collaborating and Counting, Part II: Online”

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